Everyone knows that this is iPhone 3G week, but so far we have had to be content with lot so rumors, some facts about what plans will be available, the occasional guide to scoring your new iPhone, and an unboxing or two. These phones are still incredibly hard to come by before their release date–even though it’s Friday—and Apple’s ability to prevent them from leaking reminds me of the last time a Harry Potter book came out.

Two pillars of tech journalism, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and The New York Times’ David Pogue, have posted their reviews of the new iPhone today.

Mossberg’s review brings up a number of high points, but ultimately he’s not nearly as in enamored with the phone as those people sitting outside of Apple store–in line for the phone– for the last week would have liked. He starts off strong:

“I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.”

But eventually all those drawbacks add up. There are not big surprises revealed, but the new iPhone gets a shot of reality.

The review in the Times is basically in line with that of the WSJ. Pogue points out the advantages of the new iPhone as well as its low points, and ultimately decides that “… it’s not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens.” Ultimately he is the most impressed with Apple App store, which will be available to all iPhones, not just those arriving Friday.

Overall the reviews don’t offer any huge surprises, and we already knew so much about this device that not much came to light. Most people, myself included, probably expected the reviews to be a bit more positive, but the changes from the original could have been much more significant so it’s not hard to be a little disappointed. Perhaps the most troubling changes though are the drop in battery life from the original model and the increased price of AT&T’s new plans. Current iPhone owners definitely have some thinking to do before Friday.

Update: The phone was reviewed by Ed Baig at USA Today as well. He insists on mentioning the lack of a physical keyboard but does say that Apple has “raised the bar” with the 3G.